The Gender Wealth Gap for Never-Married Adults Shrank in 2022

What was the gender wealth gap in the U.S. in 2022? According to an analysis of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), households with women respondents had 55 cents in median wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by households with respondents who were men.SCF respondents can be single or coupled. If they are married or have a partner, the more financially knowledgeable person is chosen as the respondent. Therefore, respondents can be men or women, though wealth is measured at the household, not individual, level. This gap is unchanged from 2019.

Yet it’s hard to answer the gender wealth gap question with just one statistic. It’s important to take certain demographics, like marital status, race/ethnicity and parental status, into consideration because these factors are related to wealth. For example, racial and ethnic wealth gaps are large and enduring. But as I find here, a deeper dive into the data shows that never-married Black women, never-married Hispanic women and never-married mothers of any race or ethnicity were the most financially vulnerable. They had very low levels of wealth to fall back on in an emergency, or to use to invest in financial stability and mobility.

This blog post focuses on the wealth of adults who have never married because their wealth has not been influenced by a partner in the way it has been for adults who are married, partnered, separated, divorced or widowed.Wealth is measured at the household level; if the head of the household has never been married, there may be others in the household, including children or financially dependent adults (e.g., a parent). For an analysis of the wealth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ+) households, see this blog post. The never-married group is a subsample of the overall population—about 23% of all adults had never been married and were not currently partnered, according to the 2022 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Never-married adults have significantly less wealth than married adults. Thus, when looking at the following wealth gaps, it’s important to remember that each of the never-married groups is in the bottom third of the wealth distribution for U.S. households.

Gender Wealth Gap Narrows but Remains Large

Among women and men who have never been married, what is the wealth gap? In 2022, never-married women had $19,200 in inflation-adjusted median household wealth, and men in that group had $28,100. These women thus had 68 cents for every dollar of wealth owned by the men. As seen in the figure below, the gap was at its widest in 2004. In 2022, the gender wealth gap was the smallest in the dataset, which started in 1989.

Median Wealth Gap for Never-Married Adults Was Smallest in 2022

SOURCES: Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances and author’s calculations.

NOTES: Wealth values are for the median adult, which is the person in the 50th percentile of the wealth distribution. Dollar values are adjusted to 2022 dollars using the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U). The bars represent the median wealth gap between men and women.

Overall, never-married women had very strong wealth growth between 2019 and 2022, with an increase of 154% at the median. Never-married men’s median wealth also grew but by only 14%. Thus, the gender wealth gap shrank considerably. Taking a closer look at the data, I found that as a group, these women’s growth was primarily due to growth in housing assets followed by vehicle assets. The wealth of never-married men grew primarily because they had less debt in 2022 than in 2019.The analysis of assets and debt looked at households in the 25th to 75th percentiles to better understand why wealth grew at the median (50th percentile). Higher-wealth households were more influenced by stock market and business growth.

While this narrowing trend is positive news for gender equity, the never-married gender wealth gap remains large: Women had only 68 cents in wealth for every dollar held by their male peers. It’s also significantly greater than the median household income gap, in which never-married women earned 90 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers, according to an analysis using the 2022 SCF data.

Black and Hispanic Women Have Little Wealth

Breaking down the data by race and ethnicity revealed that never-married white men had the highest median wealth, at $40,000.Families are grouped by the race and ethnicity of the survey respondent. Hispanic or Latino people may be of any race; the term “Hispanic” is used as a shorthand for people in this group. All other races are non-Hispanic and single race (i.e., not multiracial). Sample sizes for other races and ethnicities, including Asian Americans, were too small for analysis. Data were aggregated for three survey waves—2016, 2019 and 2022—to yield estimates with greater precision.

Race and ethnicity are important to consider when looking at wealth gaps because such disaggregation usually exposes more substantial financial gaps. Indeed, never-married Black women had just $3,300 in median wealth, never-married Hispanic women had $5,600, and never-married white women had $31,000.

For every dollar of median wealth held by never-married white men, never-married Black women and never-married Hispanic women had 8 cents and 14 cents, respectively. Other comparisons are available in the figure below.

Among Those Who Have Never Married, the Wealth Gaps Were Largest for Black and Hispanic Women

SOURCES: Survey of Consumer Finances and author’s calculations.

NOTE: Survey years 2016, 2019 and 2022 are combined.

Single Mothers Suffer Wealth Penalty

Finally, it’s important to look at parenthood status. Child care is a considerable expense, as are other child-related expenses. SCF respondents were considered parents if they were living with children under age 18. Consistent with previous findings, never-married mothers had the lowest wealth—a median of $3,900 in 2022, which was $25,100 less than that of never-married women without minor children.Parenthood status is defined as respondents with their (or their spouse’s/partner’s) child or foster child under the age of 18 living with them. Women and men without minor children could therefore be parents whose children are grown, parents whose minor children are not living with them, or individuals who do not have children.

Overall, the 2022 wealth gap between never-married men and women was the smallest since the modern SCF began in 1989. Nevertheless, a sizable gap remained. Furthermore, disaggregation by race and ethnicity showed that never-married Black and Hispanic women and never-married Black and Hispanic men had less wealth than their white counterparts.

Additionally, mothers had much lower wealth than fathers and men and women without minor children. Extremely low levels of wealth leave these groups particularly exposed to unexpected expenses and financial setbacks.

Notes

1. SCF respondents can be single or coupled. If they are married or have a partner, the more financially knowledgeable person is chosen as the respondent. Therefore, respondents can be men or women, though wealth is measured at the household, not individual, level.
2. Wealth is measured at the household level; if the head of the household has never been married, there may be others in the household, including children or financially dependent adults (e.g., a parent). For an analysis of the wealth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ+) households, see this blog post.
3. The analysis of assets and debt looked at households in the 25th to 75th percentiles to better understand why wealth grew at the median (50th percentile). Higher-wealth households were more influenced by stock market and business growth.
4. Families are grouped by the race and ethnicity of the survey respondent. Hispanic or Latino people may be of any race; the term “Hispanic” is used as a shorthand for people in this group. All other races are non-Hispanic and single race (i.e., not multiracial). Sample sizes for other races and ethnicities, including Asian Americans, were too small for analysis.
5. Parenthood status is defined as respondents with their (or their spouse’s/partner’s) child or foster child under the age of 18 living with them. Women and men without minor children could therefore be parents whose children are grown, parents whose minor children are not living with them, or individuals who do not have children.